


Mild He Lays His Glory By

by Merixcil



Series: Advent Fics 2018 [8]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Established Relationship, Other, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25225978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merixcil/pseuds/Merixcil
Summary: Venom learns what Christmas is and immediately starts to question it
Relationships: Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Series: Advent Fics 2018 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824643
Kudos: 5





	Mild He Lays His Glory By

**Author's Note:**

> I'm using xe/xem/xyr pronouns for Venom because xe's an alien and has no concept of human gender

_What’s that?_

Eddie closes his eyes and breathes carefully, trying not to stop walking in the middle of an intersection that’s about to go red. He’s almost used to Venom cropping up as a disembodied voice that always knows everything he’s thinking. 

There’s a toy shop on the other side of the road, in the process of changing it’s window display. Changing shop displays are an eternal source of fascination for Venom, evidently they don’t have advertising campaigns on xyr planet. Or capitalism. If they could sort out the militaristic essentialism of their existence, the symbiotes might really be on to something. 

It’s barely November, Thanksgivng is weeks away, and this toy shop is already breaking out its Christmas decorations. Right slap bang in the middle of the window display is a rotund mannequin dressed up in red and white. Eddie rolls his eyes. “That’s Santa.”

 _You don’t like him._ Venom purrs. _Can we eat him, Eddie?_

“We cannot.”

_Because?_

Venom has wrapped xyr head pretty neatly around the concept of cause and effect dictating which people xe is and isn’t allowed to eat. Xe can’t eat the kids who screech and yell at eight thirty every weekday morning (way too early for anything) because they haven’t done anything wrong and even if they have, their just kids and deserve a chance to do better. Xe can’t eat homeless people just because ‘no one will miss them’ because that’s inhumane and awful and those people have been fucked over by the system more than anything. Xe can, however, devour the President of the United States on sight if they should ever be so unfortunate as to meet the guy. 

“Because Santa isn’t real.” Eddie explains. “He’s just something fun for kids on Christmas.”

_Christmas?_

Eddie pinches the bridge of his nose, trying not to slow down too much as they pass the toy shop, though Venom is evidently very keen to. He doesn’t have the patience right now to explain the nativity and the pagan festival it usurped and the consumerist dogma that now surrounds the whole affair. So instead he whittles it down to. “It’s a winter festival. Very popular. Everyone gets the day off.”

 _Festival._ Venom says the word slowly. Eddie knows xe knows what it means, because he had a whole song and dance to perform around explaining it ahead of the fourth of July. 

“Yeah.”

_And Santa is a toy for children. Like Pikachu._

“No.” Eddie laughs. “No, he’s more like a folklore figure. Parents tell their kids that he’s gonna bring them presents the night before Christmas. Then the parents leave out the presents and blame it on the guy.”

It takes Venom a minute with that one, mulling it over. Eddie tries to focus on where his feet are taking him. He’s heard tell of a fish shop in Chinatown that is, totally illegally, selling live fish for eating and he’s hoping that picking up a couple might help take the edge of Venom’s ravenous hunger for living things. 

_They lie._ Venom finally concludes. _The parents lie to their children. You think that’s bad._

Without waiting for permission, Venom brings up an incident two weeks back in which Eddie got into an online shouting match in the Youtube comment section in which he had to tell multiple parents that purposefully withholding information from their teenage children could only lead to distrust and unnecessary drama between them all. Perhaps he was talking out of his ass, but he’d been reading a bunch of psychological studies on the effects of different parenting methods on kids for a segment he’d been working on about new research into spanking and he was in the mood too school some folks. 

“No…it’s not…” Venom slides through his mind full speed and Eddie has to stop and grip the wall to keep from falling down. “Don’t do that!”

 _I needed to stretch._ Venom replies, petulant. 

“And I’m trying to walk here, pal.”

Venom does it again, just to prove xe can, clucking happily when it finds the small, insistent, annoyingly loud part of Eddie’s brain that’s already thinking about how this could be used for sex. 

“It’s all for fun.” Eddie says through gritted teeth, straightening himself out and very relieved when his feet don’t fall out from under him as he starts back down the street. “It’s more fun for the kids to think there’s a guy in a red suit bringing them presents. Don’t you think?”

 _We don’t like being lied to._ Venom replies. _Neither of us, Eddie. Being lied to isn’t fun._

“No, but-”

_Creates distrust. Makes children believe that the red man can break into their bedrooms. Not good._

“Venom, c’mon. Listen to m-”

 _The festival tradition is bad._ Venom concludes with smug finality. 

“Yeah well.” Eddie grumbles. “The food’s usually pretty good.”

The words have barely left his mouth before Venom is sorting quickfire through his memories, looking for turkey and pigs in blankets and lashings of gravy. By the end of the block, xe’s forgotten all about Santa. 

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted as part of a multi chaptered 'advent fics' fic that I'm trying to split up. If you think you've read it before, you probably have
> 
> Comments on the previous posting of this fic (just ask if you want me to remove yours) include:
> 
> >Dragonsrule18: This is great! I bet V would like a lot of things about Christmas. :) Like cookies, and hot chocolate, and presents, and stockings filled with candy...  
> >>Merixcil: Oh I'm sure xe'll come round to it ;)  
> >>Thanks for reading!
> 
> >Bright_Elen: I can just see Venom's "can I eat them?" flowchart and it's wonderful.  
> >evidently they don’t have advertising campaigns on xyr planet. Or capitalism. If they could sort out the militaristic essentialism of their existence, the symbiotes might really be on to something. LMAO  
> >>Merixcil: eddie Brock is an anticapitalist and I will accept nothing less  
> >>Venom's eating people flowchart is getting more detailed by the day. They learn so fast :')


End file.
